Young lives up in smoke: More special education help is needed at schools
Monday, 19 July 2021
OPINION: There is a reason those of us who have children with disabilities or extra needs, call the Ministry of Education the Ministry of Magic.
Because it is a mythical place full of smoke and mirrors.
Many of the things it says we have access to do not exist. Or only exist in very small amounts.
Special education in New Zealand appears a farce, a very elaborate magic trick.
Minister of Education Chris Hipkins is the very proficient chief magician.
He makes it seem like all the disabled and learning support students in New Zealand have a whole array of help and support available in our free, mainstream state school system.
A puff of smoke, a flourish, and a body cut in three is magically rejoined.
This is the reality of the system; the parts do not work together, they do not align, they are not healed or even remotely assisted.
There are not enough glamorous assistants on hand to support our kids (unless you secretly pay for them).
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Hipkins will tell you that adequate support exists for all students with additional needs in the school system.
But sadly, this is another elaborate magic trick. The one where you think a fluffy, cute rabbit will appear out of thin air. The rabbit being a teacher aide, school fencing, mobility ramps, or a speech therapist so your child can learn how to communicate.
We all hope and pray and desperately cross our fingers hoping that the Ministry will grant us teacher aide support, Ongoing Resourcing Scheme funding, an educational psychologist, or a communication device to talk. Anything that will help our children to attend school safely, and the help they need to actually learn and gain an education.
Anything to be supported with dignity and care, and receive the opportunity to participate in schools like their peers.
But those rabbits are very strictly and severely rationed out.
If they admitted that harsh reality, it would be a case of mass discrimination across the country against children with additional needs.
Instead, the smoke and mirrors used by the Ministry help to make it seem like there are glamorous assistants and rabbits appearing wherever they are needed.
This is false. This does not happen.
The Ministry does not provide a service that helps every student attend school no matter what.
It is a show, a pantomime, a trick.
All children should be able to access an equal education, but this is impossible without help for some, and when you don't want to invest proper money in our most vulnerable children to help them do what their peers can do without support.
My conclusion is the people in charge seem heartless, uncaring, lacking in empathy, and ultimately, they are preventing at least 20 per cent of our precious children from achieving their potential.
This has massive social, economic and political ramifications long term. And ultimately it costs us as a country.
The worst magic trick is the one where literally thousands of children vanish from our schools. Vanish into a puff of smoke, unseen.
They are the children driven out because their disabilities or extra needs are not accommodated or supported.
So they disappear from amongst their peers and end up either attending school part-time, being forced into home schooling, distance education, health schools, or the worst type of trick - being suspended or expelled for having special needs.
This happens to children as young as 5 or 6. Their lives gone up in smoke when they have barely begun. All because they don't have even the minimum support or help they need.
All of our children have the right to an education. We need real help, real funding, real action by the Education Minister and the Government.
Our children deserve a real future.